A kinematically compatible framework for collaboration of multiple non-holonomic wheeled mobile robots /

We examined the design, development and implementation of a modular system of multiple, wheeled mobile manipulators that can team up to cooperatively transport a large common object. Each individually autonomous mobile manipulator consists of a differentially driven wheeled mobile robot (WMR) with a passive, two-degree-of-freedom, planar revolute jointed arm mounted in the plane parallel to the base of the WMR.The composite multi-degree-of-freedom vehicle, formed by placing a common object on the end-effector of two such mobile manipulator systems, possesses the ability to change its relative configuration as well as accommodate relative positioning errors of the mobile bases. However, closed kinematic loops are also formed constraining the relative motions of the overall system and requiring a careful treatment.Two variants of the control schemes developed for mobile manipulators are adapted for the control of the overall collaborating system of two mobile manipulators carrying a common object along a desired trajectory. (Abstract shortened by UMI.